Jody, Tyler and Kalyn

Hey all,

Hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful!! We had a great time with Tj and Diana, Kevin and Jesse too. Here is our annual family pic. It was nice to see Tyler!!! He is soooo tall now. LOL Take care and enjoy the weekend!!

Until next time....

Woohoo for turkey!!

Hey all,

Well, our dinner went wonderfully on Sunday evening and we still have plenty of leftovers. The pies turned out great and the turkey was so juicy and moist!! There were 8 of us for dinner. Now this week, Tj and Diana are here and they brought Jesse up with them from Albuquerque, so on Thursday, there will be Tj and D, me and K, Tyler and Emily and then Jesse and Kevin all for Thanksgiving dinner at the townhouse! Should be a good time. I plan to bring veggies and then the pie that I won at the Turkey trot race on Sunday.

Tj and Diana leave early Friday am to drive to Arizona for granddaughter Tamra's wedding!! Kalyn decided she wanted to go also, so they are taking her along too!! I will take K over to their house on Friday morning and then they are either returning to ABQ on Sunday eve or Monday eve and will drop off K at Tyler's house and then I will fetch her from there. They will be taking the interstate back to Florida so they are coming up as far as ABQ, which works fine. Will be nice for K to go see her cousin's wedding and all the family on that side. Tamra is Wes's (Shane's brother) oldest child. Wes and Mandy had 5 kids. Tamra is 3 months older than Kalyn, so she is still quite a young bride...but can any of us really talk about that?? lol I think not...been there, done that.

I'm working at the gym right now, so thought I would update you all. This place is a mess tonight, so I better get cleaning!! I swear, nobody does anything around here!! lol Until next time...

Pies!!!

Hey all,

I got the pies baked and potato salad finished as well!! I snapped a couple of pics for you all to see!! Enjoy!! I also took a pic of the cats on their electric blanket...they love it!! lol Then, the Thanksgiving day display is what I have out at work. Gotta head to work here soon....until next time everyone!!

Big weekend happs....

Hey all,

Well, it's Friday night and I'm on my way out the door to work!! I work tonight and Saturday afternoon at the gym this weekend. Our big weekend plans are as follows:

Friday-work at gym til 10pm, go home and start some laundry.
Sat. am- make two pies, one pecan, one pumpkin and potato salad and maybe clean up the house and more laundry.
Sat. pm-work at gym til 7, come home and more laundry and cleaning up of the house.
Sun. am-go to church, 2pm run the 2.5 mile Turkey Trot up at the Mid School and then at 5, we are having our turkey dinner!! Turkey, stuffing, potato salad, cranberries, rolls, corn casserole, mashed potatoes with gravy, and pies with whipped topping. There will be 7 of us for dinner. Myself, Kalyn, Reuben, Nicole and Tony (R's daughter and son in law), Kalyn's friend Cara and also Simone (Reuben's daughter). Should be a great time and it's also Nicole's birthday so I think Reuben is going to pick up a small cake for her.

That's our plan and also fit in to watch the Packer/Viking game on Sunday!!

I will take pics!! Until next time...

Thanks!!

Hey all,

Well, my post yesterday got some big responses, so I wanted to say "thank you" to those of you who commented. It really means alot to me. I appreciate the hugs too!!! lol I'm basically fine, you know you just get down sometimes and that's just life. Church helped this morning. (that darn pastor always knows what to talk about!!) We have been discussing "joy" in our lives and today it was about if you are a "shallow" pool swimmer or a "deep" end swimmer. He asked what type of friends we have. People that bring us down or people that stand behind us no matter what. He also mentioned that one needs to "swim the other direction" when you are friends with people that try to steer you in the "wrong" direction. So, one can apply this to almost any situation. I mostly had tears throughout the sermon. It was quite spiritual today and was nice.

After the service, the church was taking donations for 14 baskets of kindness to give to families for a Thanksgiving meal. Reuben and I bought a turkey to donate!! Then, as I'm home cleaning, I had a thought...we have this 19 year old girl that works at the gym, that is pregnant (due in a few weeks) and was just put on bedrest as of Friday night. I thought...hmmm...wouldn't that be nice if we put a box out at the gym (cuz everyone knows her) and kind of have a "donation to the baby" box for her!! I texted my boss Carrie and she said that was a WONDERFUL idea and she will start working on it tomorrow at the gym. I plan to get diapers and wipes at first and then see what the other members of the gym and co-workers can bring. I'm very excited about this and it is putting me back to my "joyful" self!!! I even texted another coworker, Sharon, and she was all excited to help as well. So, look what I've started and it sure makes you feel good!!! Until next time!!.....

Just life right now....

Hey all,

Well, October was quite the busy month!! Went on my trip, taking care of Kalyn's things for her graduation and working all my jobs. November hasn't been quite as exciting, but still busy. I've been in kind of a "slump", if you will. Part of it has to do with my job and another has to do with not being able to workout as much as I would like to. Most days I just don't even wanna do any working out. I've decided today that it has to do with my bank job. I was really disappointed in the raise I got for this new position. Of course, it didn't help that my boss was bragging to everyone that she got such a large raise that her husband can now quit his job if he wants to. Ok....so I thought...well if SHE is getting that than I should be getting a good raise as well. She told me the amount of the raise and I about died.....not anywhere even CLOSE to what I was thinking. I wanted to be able to quit my gym job or maybe even just the cleaning jobs and cut back at the gym...well that didn't pan out, so I'm a little sad about it. This past week I decided to just "hang in there" and do the best job I can. She assured me that after 90 days, we would chat and see how it's going. It's alot of report work, managing the tellers and just have more responsibility on my shoulders. I'm basically getting $100 more a paycheck which comes to $2400 a year and that is after taxes. I feel it should be double that, at the very least. ugh..... :( So, I did accept this position and I told her flat out that I was not happy with the amount at all and I still have to work my other jobs. I've been pretty grumpy at work too. It's just really hard to be happy when I'm not. you know?? But, I am trying my hardest...just so you know...I also put some new songs on my ipod to get me more motivated and that is helping me.... soooo.... I should be back to normal soon, i think, I hope, i pray!!

We are still going to church every Sunday. It's really nice there and a small crowd of folks too. Reuben seems to like it alot too and even bought himself a new, hand stitched, calf-skin Bible as an early Xmas gift to himself. It is beautiful!!!

Kalyn is still getting straight A's and doing so well in school. She is having issues with her gallbladder so next week we will be looking into "natural" meds that may help dissolve these stones she has. Reuben works with a naturepath (??) person that can give her herbs and healthy stuff in a drop form to get rid of them. We figure it won't hurt to try this (and she has to watch very closely what she eats) first and then if it doesn't help, we can always consult the surgeon about surgery.

Tyler is doing well. He is having car issues (brakes) so he is asking for his Xmas money early to take care of that. That little car of his is something else. Gets great gas mileage and has lasted him a couple of years already. It's a 1987 Honda Civic.

So, that is my saga for today...I guess sometimes life throws things at you and you have to learn to sink or swim. My whole life I have gotten through a lot of different issues and have survived, so I'm sure I will be fine. Just one of those times, I guess. Maybe I just need an extra hug?? lol Until next time....